Don't Go In There
By Rafael Coira
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Rafael is currently studying for the bar exam and writing fiction in his spare time. His short stories have recently appeared in Static Movement, The Fringe and 50 to 1. His updated version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is available digitally and in print through Amazon and Lulu.
By Rafael Coira
Hel. Three simple letters but when you see them in a text message from your mother in the middle of the night you start to get worried.
Lynne took the tunnel out of the city, got on the parkway and drove three hours down to Salem County. Dawn was breaking when she hit the first unpaved road.
It had always had a settling feeling for her, the grooves of the country lanes, the dense stretch of oaks that lined both sides of the road. It always felt like home. But now, having been away at school for almost three months and not having been more than twenty feet away from another human during that time, it started to creep her out.
When she finally turned into the driveway she noticed that the gate was open.
“It’s never open.”
Everything else was normal enough. The horses weren’t turned out which meant that her mother must have brought them in last night. Or did it mean she never turned them out yesterday?
The thought sent a shiver down her spine. She had a sudden image of her mother’s corpse sitting on the couch in the living room, rotting away.
She blocked it out and continued up the gravel drive.
The front door was unlocked. But that’s normal right?
When she opened the door she saw that her mother was sitting right where Lynne had imagined. But she wasn’t dead.
She was cupping the mug that Lynne had gotten her for mother’s day five years ago. Spread across the coffee table were old photo albums.
“Mom?” Lynne said.
She didn’t look up right away.
“Mom?”
Lynne ran into the house, jumped on her mother and started crying.
“Mom, I was so worried, why did you send me that stupid text?”
“Remember this?” her mother said pointing to a picture of them at Magic Kingdom.
“Mom didn’t you hear me?”
“That was your twelfth birthday.”
“Mom, what’s wrong with you?”
Finally her mom snapped out of her stupor. “Lynne, listen to me.” Her eyes were black and her look was serious. “Please, just sit there and look at the pictures.”
Just look at the pictures, Lynne thought. Just look at the pictures.
She sat for a long time with her mother looking at the pictures. After a while she fell asleep. When she woke up it was still day and her mother was still looking at the pictures and stroking Lynne’s hair with her frigid hands.
Lynne stood up.
“Where are you going?” her mother said.
“I have to go to the bathroom.”
“No,” her mother yelled and ran in front of her.
“Mom, what’s wrong with you?”
“Just stay here, Lynne. Look at the pictures.”
Her mother’s cold hands wrapped around her wrists.
“Get out of my way,” Lynne said and pulled her arms away.
Her mother fell to the ground and began sobbing. Lynne walked past her into the hall and to the bathroom door.
“Lynne,” her mother cried desperately. “Don’t go in there.”
She opened the door and there she saw her mother’s body on the bathroom floor, her arms and legs twisted, laying in a pool of blood.
Lynne turned around and her mother, the one sobbing on the floor of the living room, was gone.
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Rafael is currently studying for the bar exam and writing fiction in his spare time. His short stories have recently appeared in Static Movement, The Fringe and 50 to 1. His updated version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is available digitally and in print through Amazon and Lulu.
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